A Family Feast

We had the privilege of hosting Thanksgiving this year. It was actually a 3-day event due to snow and travel conditions with some of the family arriving early to beat the snow and staying late for a lingering visit.

Liz drew a welcome picture on the chalkboard.

The festivities began quietly with a puzzle.

My brothers decided to try roasting chestnuts on an open fire.

They were terrible (sorry Tom and Tim).

We had about 10" of snow fall in the night and our bar got a bit frosty.

We had fun setting the table.

Lots of fun times at dinner!

We took a long walk in between the big feast and dessert.

 There are always delicious desserts!

Pecan tart, pumpkin pie, cider cake, chocolate pie.

A family dessert photo.

The girls went with their Aunt Hilary to the yarn shop and they made arm-knitted infinity scarves at the end of the day. It was a quiet, relaxing way to end the festivities.

 It was a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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"Our Bridge"

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving this weekend with my parents as we are going to Canada over the holiday. We have a tradition of taking family photos at the Chocorua bridge in NH.  Our family has been getting their photos taken on this bridge with the mountain in the background since 1928.  Here is a little tour of the photos.

My grandmother and her sister

My grandparents just before getting married with my grandfather's mother

Jean Crosby and Jim Cayford

My Grandmother on her honeymoon

1936 Honeymoon--nobody around to take their photo together!

My Mother--1940

My mother, sister, and parents--1946

My Mother!

Now my Grandfather with his three kids--Jane, Chris, and Phil

My grandparents' 30th anniversary photos on the bridge

Here I am with my brothers and father--I was 10

I might have been a senior in high school in this photo.

My father is wearing my down jacket. Love the shiny jackets!

I was college-age in this photo with my grandmother, parents, and brother.

Sadly, my father probably still has this old jacket of mine from 1978.

Here my grandparents got someone to take their photo!

My brother 

My parents

Here are our honeymoon photos from 1994

Now the next generation with my brother and his son

My brother, his wife, and kids

Here we are with our girls

Helen and Liz

Here are Helen and Liz now with my parents

Taking selfies at the bridge--a new photography technique!

Our family today!

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A Snowy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving continues to be my favorite holiday. I love hanging out with my family wherever we decide to celebrate. This year it was at the family lake house.

Our family really loves pie--everyone has a favorite and my feeling is that this is the one meal of the year where everyone should get what they want--no holding back. So, here's Liz working on pie. There was pumpkin (2), chocolate, pecan tart, apple, apple cranberry, and blueberry! My current favorite is my Sister-in Law's bourbon pecan tart. Note to self...blueberry pie can be runny...and can drip out of a pie basket...all over everything else....

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning to a beautiful blanket of snow. The snow, while beautiful, certainly caused a flurry of telephone calls about plowing, power, timing the turkey, and travel, but everyone got there. There was power. And the turkey cooked!

We spent the day down on the lake. There was a lot of fishing.

Nels's sister called while we were hanging out on the water needing help with her gravy.

The kids made a snow fort and of course there were snowballs tossed around.
Helen thought this was a very strange combination of events...fishing...snowballs...gravy instructions....suntanning (as the Moms were doing)....


This puzzle had to get done by dinner so we could use the table...the pressure was on.

The gray November sky brought us a treat at the end of the day.

And, to cap off our time together, we brought out the movie projector and watched the old family films....forwards and backwards as children were tossed into water and snow and flew back out.

For me, that's what Thanksgiving is about--Family.

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Thanksgiving

It is already time to take down the bittersweet from around the house.

Thanksgiving came and went this year much too quickly.

We had a house full of family for nearly 4 days with 12 around the table.
Nels and my brothers fried our first turkey (we women had a backup roasting).

We ate many pies and tarts.

There seemed to always be a game going--small groups playing chess, checkers, and crokinole and the whole crowd playing Apples-to-Apples and Pit (which is quite a romp of a game).

As everyone headed over the rivers and through the woods back home, I reflected on how wonderful it is to have a holiday that really is just all about being together as a family.

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